10-10-13 Ijexa Week 2

CANDOMBLE
YORUBA
ATABAQUES
RUM-RUMPI-LE
IJEXA
NAÇAO
RHYTHM
EU
JA
FUI
SALVADOR

The IJEXÁ rhythm (pronounced Eee-jay-shah) arose from the rituals of Candomblé. This is a religion which came from the beliefs of the Yoruban people that the Portuguese brought to Brazil from West Africa to work in the sugarcane mills and mines. This slave trade centered in the Northeastern Brazil, and happened during the colonial period, from around 1500 to 1822. The Africans used their culture and religion to resist the oppression of slavery and, in to doing, became a major part of Brazil’s music, dance, festivities, cuisine and culture.

Ijexá is an ethnic sub group of the Yoruba people. In the Candomblé religion it is a nation formed by slaves that came from the city of Ilesha, in the state of Osun, in northwestern Nigeria. The Ijexá rhythm is played in the Candomblé Rituals, although it has been adapted for the street parades.

The Ijexá is played by the Blocos de Afoxé or Afoxés, associations of people bound to a specific Terreiro de Candomblé,that parades in the streets during Carnival. As they parade down the streets, they dance and sing in the Yoruban language praising the Orisha Oxum (Deity of the lakes and waterfalls) . This is why the Afoxé group is also calledCandomblé de Rua (Candomblé of the Streets). Commonly people call the Ijexá rhythm Afoxé.

The instruments used by the Ijexa groups come from those used in the Candomblé Rituals. They include the threeAtabaque drums (Rum, Rumpi and Lê), the Agogô and the Shekerê or Abê. The atabaques are cone-shaped, wooden drums covered in ox skin; the lowest-pitched one is called Rum, the medium-pitched one is the Rumpi and the smallest, highest-pitched one is the Lê. They are played with thin sticks called Aquidavis.